Zach Ertz on rematch w/ Saints: "Everyone knows what happened last time. That was probably the most humbling game I've ever played in. Phenomenal football team. The No. 1 seed for a reason. At the same time, no one expected us to be here. We're playing with house money right now.

Ran up the score? House money? Different team? Any other fabricated narratives the reigning Super Bowl champions care to pin up on the bulletin board as they ready themselves to head into a building in which their dignity got driven into the artificial dirt less than two months ago? I doubt the dog masks have even been put away for long enough to have collected dust, so might as well break those clean out while they are in the process of proactively putting a brand new face on what took place in Week 11.

Now, I understand the need to recycle every cliche in the book when trying to hypothesize away a 41-point differential without referencing the actual X's and O's of what was as thorough a domination as you'll witness during an NFL game. Unless they are trying out Nick Foles' magical touch at defensive back, his paranormal presence alone wasn't going to be enough to leave them feeling confident in their ability to exact revenge from a football standpoint.

I just thought a increasingly confident roster with their Super Bowl MVP back under center would have more pride than to talk about themselves like they are the 'Little Giants', even if IceBox would be a welcomed addition in the middle of their defense. Credit where credit is due, because no team in the history of sports has gotten more mileage out of self-proclaiming themselves disrespected. Unfortunately, my intelligence feels disrespected by the tight end who is less than a year removed from securing the game-winning grab on the biggest stage in all of sports. Simply put, for a team that's done a hell of a lot of winning as of late, claiming "house money" is quite the loser's mentality.

Much like every other Sunday during the NFL season, this upcoming one will be of the "any given" variety. The Eagles could very well have Saints' fans leaving the SuperDome to sit shiva for their season in six days. That said, the lengths that a championship team is going in trying to talk into existence their chances of winning is extremely telling.

I'm all for the manufacturing of motivation, but the Saints didn't "run up the score" as much as they ran over the Eagles' pride in late November. A Pro Bowl-caliber safety got roasted by a "running back" on a go-route with basically an entire quarter left to play (13:20). While going for the jugular on 4th down from just outside FG range might not be the most sportsmanslike thing to have ever take place place on a football field, it's about 100x more respectable than quitting. That's exactly what the Eagles did the last time they were in New Orleans, so maybe the Birdies should focus less on chirping and more on playing a more competitive brand of football this time around. After all, invented inspiration only goes but so far on the field. Especially when the team that calls it home undeniably feels more slighted, scorned, and sparked by the heartbreak they experienced in their last postseason appearance of which the spite stirred up during a 40+ point regular season drubbing pales in comparison.

The most eye-opening comment from the Kamara profile:

"We'd beat the shit out of [the Eagles] cause we was rolling. If we won [versus Minnesota], I knew nobody was gonna stop us cause we came all the way back.”